The present disclosure relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus, an image processing, and a program which are configured to obtain an image having high level of satisfaction even when facial expressions of a plurality of image-captured people are different.
In recent years, an image processing technology of processing a digital operation based on an image signal has been rapidly progressed. As the example, a technology of detecting a face of a person from an image is disclosed (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-157679). This face detection technology has been developed to be installed on a digital type imaging apparatus which performs imaging with a solid imaging device such as a digital still camera. In addition, in recent years, a technology of recognizing a facial expression of a detected face has been noticed.
For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-046591, a technology, which evaluates a facial expression of a face of an image-captured person for each captured image from an image signal in which a plurality of frames are continuously captured, and selects an appropriate image from the evaluation information, has been proposed.
Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-217758, a technology which performs an evaluation as an image, not just an evaluation of a face included in an image has been proposed.
Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-117948, a technology, which has two kinds of facial expression determination modes and selects a determination mode, whether the mode is a speed priority, an accuracy priority, a manual operation by a user, or the like, in response to the number of detected faces, has been proposed.
On the other hand, in an imaging apparatus, so-called a self-timer function (an automatic imaging function) in which a shutter is automatically released after a predetermined time elapses from an operation of pressing a shutter button is generally installed not only in a silver-salt camera, but also in a digital still camera.
However, in the automatic imaging function, the time when the shutter is released is previously determined, so that it does not guarantee that an image-captured person necessarily has a good facial expression at the time when the shutter is released and an unsatisfactory picture has been frequently captured.
In response, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-030163, a technology has been proposed which conducts functional improvement in the automatic imaging function by changing the frequency when imaging and recording are performed in an automatic imaging function, for example.